Tuesday, January 01, 2008

Saw National Treasure 2 today - also a good movie. Overall I've been very pleasantly surprised with all the movies I've seen during this little vacation. Or maybe everything's just better on vacation. Either way I'm happy.

Bowling Alone mentions 2 kinds of organizations - "bonding" that bring their members closer together by focusing on a commonality that often excludes others (religious organizations, Mensa), and "bridging" groups that bring people who might otherwise never meet together (Salvation Army). Every group has both, but most are decidedly either inward- or outward-focused. I've always preferred outward-looking groups (or at least eagerly welcoming ones), but it makes sense that both functions are useful and good for certain purposes. This has just kinda stuck with me from the book.

I feel like a voyeur in elections. Being in Texas, my vote's irrelevant to national elections as Texas only goes one way, and our primaries will be too late to matter. Being in Austin, my vote usually won't matter in state elections and my congressional district has been tweaked to make sure that vote doesn't matter. I don't know why I'm actually continuing with it, but it feels good to at least be informed. Iowa kicks off the madness Thursday, and I'm looking forward to seeing if there will be any last-minute surprises. I'm not sure those can exist any more - heck, I think the only reason Obama and Huckabee are close is the media's desperation to have a second contender than any real chance - but one can hope.

Time to watch Georgia continue to prove why Hawaii's record doesn't justify a spot in the title game. I'd love to see Hawaii make the upset, but they just don't have the offensive line to play against anyone east of the Rockies. Yes, I'm suggesting that they could hang with the Pac10, just none of the varsity conferences.
posted by Unknown 8:39 PM | 0 comments